DIY - Clean Your Air Heat Vents 

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It's funny reading all the replies from the pros; throwing around buzz words like HEPA and negative pressure. The guy is cleaning dust out of his vents, this isn't rocket science. Could it have been done better? Sure, but I bet they're still cleaner than when he started and it solved his problem. You HVAC guys work so hard to keep your business shrouded in secrecy. Quit belittling his work and let us discuss how to clean ducts without spending $600.

only suggest one idea as I do clean ducts, it is my profession. I would use some type of agitating brush, to agitate the dust off the corners. As a professional, I provide before and after pictures. Dave you did a great job, hope it helped. make sure to change your filters as well.

I have to agree.....I think we were all waiting to see how much dust/dirt you collected. How much did you get?

Great job! I'm sure your wife is so proud of you and is so thankful! I bet your entire family feels better. Thanks for sharing.

I respect you. Most people would've never took air duct cleaning as far as you did.

I had a horrible musty smell whenever I turned on the central air that made me literally feel sick. I thought it was coming from my vents. I tried everything you could think of to get rid of it. Spent hundreds of dollars on products that didn't work. I even had the whole system cleaned out by a hvac professional but the smell still remained. I was changing my filter one day when I saw water pooling in the back of the unit near the drainage pan and alot of other yucky crap. It took me about 30 minutes a wet/dry vac, lots of rags, some warm water, soap and alot of patience to get rid of it all. You wouldn't believe the stuff that builds up in the drainage pan and coils and can cause foul smells and a host of other problems. I also sprayed everything down with Concrobium Mold control after cleaning. Smell is completely 100% gone and It smellls like I am in a fresh new place.

A few tips if you're going to attempt this: 1. Don't use fiberglass insulstion in your vents to block air. It has styrene in it and will cause the very symptoms you're trying to remedy. Cardboard(to hold it) and some duct taped plastic across the inside vent will do the trick. (Don't use duct tape on wood or painted surfaces, use painter tape on painted surfaces. Don't use any tape on shellac surfaces, it will peel it off.) 2. When you go to remove your register covers, run a razor knife around the vent to cut the paint first if it's been painted to avoid tearing the paint. 3. Some painters tape and either plastic or paper will seal the vents. Putting something on it without taping it will just cause the fine dust to blow into the room. 4. There's a good chance you won't be able to do this easily if you're HVAC has been properly installed in the last 10 years. They insulate the ducts so you'll have to cut the insulation to access the duct at the furnace/AC. What doesn't get done doing it this way: Duct cleaners use brushes so far more fine dust is removed. After that I guess you'll have to decide whether or not your time, 4 hours, and the possibility of doing more damage is more or less valuable than $200. No, I don't clean ducts or install HVAC for a living. But I've made all these mistakes.

Thank you SO much for this great video Dave. I have been researching the whole HVac thing and while it might be the way to go for some folks, I'm leaning strongly in the direction that us diyselfers can handle this task just fine in many instances. I am a contractor also and often show my potential customers how to "do it yourself" on things that they can. I really appreciate your presentation....concise, not a lot of jibber jabber that is not necessary; informational, lots of great tips that I wouldn't have thought of; humble, a genuine attitude of simply wanting to help and share your successes and things you did wrong but figured out the right or better way. I liked when you showed to bang on the duct with your hand to help loosen things. So, now I am all set to clean the ducts In the 90's double wide mobile home we just purchased in an investment deal. I would not have thought to use the leaf blower/vac method. Was just thinking to get a long hose and reach as far as possible, which isn't that far in a mobile and one story. You have definitely made my upcoming work easier and if I could, I would give you a hug. :) You are APPRECIATED!!

Bro, I'm cleaning my ducts too. Just a friendly tip, if you want better air flow. You need to use an aluminum foil tape along all your duct seams and connections. Anywhere there are screws also. Just sealing the furnace hood, has increased my heat distribution. A lot of hot air was leaking before the fan kicked in. Also saving me on my gas bill. I would also recommend if you have open ceiling ducts in your basement, to use a duct wrap insulation on all your exposed ducts. I'm using one called reflectix (looks like bubble wrap with foil on both sides). It helps with thermal loss in your ducts. When your furnace goes on, do you get cold air first? It's because of the thermal loss from the cool basement air against your ducts. About 30% of your furnace heat is lost just warming the ducts. So let's say, just taping the seams gives you 10% better heat. Plus the wrap gives around 20- 25% less heat loss. Bro, that's around 30- 35% better efficiency of your furnace. That adds up over the year. The tape costs around $25. The wrap cost around $40. $65 today, saves you hundreds in a year. I would also add, if not already there. Dampers on all your duct lines. They help with the amount of air that travels per duct. Let say you have a room that you hardly use (spare bedroom). It gets 100% heat from the duct, if you adjust the damper (not vent) you can reduce the heat flow to 30%, the rest 70% will now travel to other rooms. Work smart, not hard.

Nice job, I use a foam ball with a string on it to do my round duct. Shop vac and blower to blow/ suck the string and them pull. Works like a charm

I wish I could've seen total accumulation in the shop vac.

For all you Home Builders: PLEASE BUILD US A HOUSE WHERE WE CAN CLEAN THIS KIND OF STUFF EASY!! GOOOODDDNESS!!

I can say we had our house done. The equipment they used cleaned the residue off of every inch of the ducts. Once they were done the ducts were treated to kill any mold and dust mites that might still be living in the duct work. With asthmatics in the house we we decided that having some not guessing at the job and pulling it all out side was much cleaner and safer.

This may be an older video but I'm glad I found it. Gives me a little more confidence to clean my own system. Only I'll be using a 2HP dust collector that I have for my garage workshop. It has a 4in hose and a lot more strength, but still the same concept. And I'll be using a rotary brush with about an 8ft reach

Your results may not be considered acceptable by those who make their living doing this. But at least you cleaned them. Many homes go 40 to 50 years without cleaning. One can only imagine what is living in there.

As another note in reference to the stuffed up head, check the humidity level in your house. In cold areas with the furnace running with no humidification, humidity levels can drop to around 10%. Even with my whole house humidifier mounted on my furnace, I can only get it to about 35%. So I bought a whole house console unit to augment my furnace mounted humidifier. By humidifying your house, you can actually lower the thermostat a few degrees and with the added humidity it will feel warmer. This will also save your hardwood floors and furniture from shrinking, help prevent colds by keeping your mucus membranes moist.

Thanks for this video. I have dogs that don't like people much so I can't really have strangers running loud machinery throughout the house and it is too expensive to board my dogs AND pay for someone to do this. I understand that I won't get things as clean as a professional service, but if I do this every once in a while it will do wonders. Great video to follow.

Lots of useful information in your video. Well done! Thanks! Would have been interesting to see what you collected in the vac bag. I'm going to clean the vents in an older mobile home. I plan to use insulation around the leaf blower to keep air from blowing back and somewhat pressurizing the vents.

Good ideas, thanks for your video. Here are details inspired by your approach. I have a long hose that originally was a swimming pool vacuum hose. I use it for many tasks. For example when I annually clean my 6" Stainless steel chimney liner I attach the pool vacuum hose to my shop vac. Then place the shop vac outside so that it's exhaust doesn't blow collected fines all over the inside of the house. Shop vac filters are Not particularly good at stopping very fine particles -- certainly not remotely close to HEPA. For my furnace ducts I will snake the long pool filter hose into all ducts and perhaps attach an appropriately sized soft brush to mechanically dislodge the material. Will use another section of pool hose on the exhaust side of the shop vac so that the exhaust side of the shop vac delivers outside the house.

Thanks for being normal and using normal stuff .

I had mine professionally cleaned in 2017 , opened my return trunk last week . Stick to doing it yourself , they did a half ass job. Screw you so called professionals. Goes the same to stanley steamer , they upcharged my 83yr old mother over $1,000.00 for a 3hr job. Freakin crooks.

Wow thank u the most thorough video for cleaning the duct system $80.00 8 years ago it’s starting @ $500.00 now depend on the technician thanks again have a bless

I found the skeleton remains of Jimmy Hoffa and $50 million in my vent.

Thanks for the video, well explained. I did this myself as well but in a different way. I don't have leaves blower, I used the vent cleaning brush similar to the one you put the link, and instead of blow everything to the bottom, I used the brush to get dust up to the floor vents and collect there.

As an HVAC tech this is a really good idea! I would not have thought of that!

Hey kudos for trying :) Yours was the first site I saw on the subject. Such is the spirit of the DIY guy. We've lived in a farmhouse for 44 years. Never had duct cleaned, heated with wood for years :( Then oil, then wood. Can you imagine what a mess ours are? Thinking I need a professional, but I just had to see what was out there :) Love projects like this. Here's the thought I've been rolling around, creating a big nylon net poof thing like you use in the shower and dragging it through the duct work, while having the shop vac in basement to receive dust...lol

You kno the procedures that’s all that matters. Well done

Wow, $80 to clean ducts in your area? It's like $400+ to get a company to do it here in Canada :(

Thanks. Would've been nice to see the inside of that shop vac and another peek into the trunk line.

I wish i could see the result becaus you did a great job showing the durs in the pipe

Well, you've done a better job that many duct cleaning"professionals" out there :) You can lightly clean the system annually by yourself, that will extend a cleanliness of your ducts. At least, vacuum out cold air intakes, and change air filters every 2-3 month. But please, don't put this type of insulation inside of your duct system :) and be careful when you run a shop vac hose through the return vents like that..you can damage wiring (thermostat, alarm, etc..) But I would recommend to let professionals thoroughly clean it for you at least once in every 7-10 years...just make sure they really are professionals. This job should cost around $450, not that big of an investment for 7-10 years :) Good luck!

I recommend using a camera and flashlight to inspect inside the ductwork before and after cleaning. I used my cell phone and couldn't believe all the dust and debris I found. It's important to know if it's clean or not because the dust can mold if the humidity gets high enough. Thank you for sharing.

I ran a duct cleaning service for several years. $80 is super cheap. But remember, you get what you pay for. When I did it, it was a two man job. An average house would take about 5 hours to do it right. That included cleaning the evaporator coil. When cleaning the duct work, a lot of debris will fall onto the evaporator coil. Once you turn the system back on, much of debris will blow right back into the duct. The remaining debris will fall into the condensate drain pan at the bottom of the evaporator coil and plug it up preventing it from draining properly and allowing water to drip into the furnace and corrode the heat exchanger and other parts of the furnace. Simply blowing air into the duct work will not effectively clean the duct. Some type of agitation must be used in conjunction with the vacuum system. Also, a shop vac isn't near as powerful as a duct cleaning vac moving 5000 cfm/min. with a HEPA filtration system as the final filter.

I have a really long vacuum attachment made to clean clothes dryers and refrigerator coils. Cleaned pretty far into my ducts and returns with it today. I had to empty my vacuum twice, so I'm happy. Our house is 25 years old, and we've had cats the entire time. I think this is the second time someone's cleaned them. First time they were cleaned, we found garbage like soda bottles left over from the workers who built the house in the intakes.

I use a dust buster and determination. Never underestimate the will of the American Spirit!!!

I was waiting for the big reveal of all the dust in the ShopVac. Brilliant idea. I think I'm going to do the same, but use my air compressor.

Definitely get a humidifier. I have a whole house humidifier that works wonders. It does get clogged in the water line every 5 years or so. You also need to replace the filter once or twice a year depending on usage. It helps a lot though. In Michigan winters, it can get down in the teens for humidity inside. Mine can get it to 30-35%. I also put small ones in our bedroom at night and in the home office during the day when it’s bad.

You should have emptied your shop vac before starting, then you would know how much dirt you actually collected.

Great video man. I fix alot of things around my house the same way, its nice to see videos of DIYer figuring stuff out and trying it.

not sure if stuffing fiberglass insulation in your ductwork is the best idea,im sure when you turned on your heat you blasted thousands of tiny fiberglass fibers throughout your duct system and in turn your house.

i would appreciate his efforts. at least he stood up and did something instead of paying a bunch of scammers. and for your kind information the scammers say they will do it for $50 but make a bill of $200 in the end.

Thank you very much cross your fingers and hope this works Its going to be a spring cleaning weekend project We are going to use an air compressor see how that works out

Good improvised duct cleaning. I would only be concerned about the Air Conditioning coil that sits on top of the furnace inside the ductwork. I couldn't see if you had central air or not. If you don't protect that coil you could be pushing some of the dust right on top of it. And yes as the other comments say, you need to bust up that dust with some physical brushes or something. You could probably invest in a few Dryer Vent cleaning kits and use those brushes on a drill to help clean out the vents. Duct cleaning can be a tedious process on the professional side, but done right it will totally clean out all of that dust. If you do a little research you can eliminate the scammers pretty easy.

Congratulations Dave Wirth on standing up to all these 'professionals' who have so much to say about YOUR house. Personally, I'll only hire a 'pro' after I can't do something or totally break it. Then, at least I'm getting ripped off for fixing what I broke rather than ripped off for what I didn't even try to fix. You learned your lesson abt the insulation right and you won't do that again, family is cool, system works...screw the haters and DIY.

kudos for being proactive for your familys health concerns man ! Anything you do in terms of cleaning your duct system is worthwhile

$80 to clean the vents! That's amazing I paid $400 to get mine cleaned

Dude you're truly a life saver I need to do this badly and after this I am confident I can accomplish this in a weekend just need a leaf blower. Going to check out your link!!

Dude I literally had the exact same idea and then I RU-vids DIY vent clean out and you did the same thing! Excited to try this thanks for sharing.

Ingenious, well improvised. There is a little captain in you.

I love the insulation you put in the hole. I bet you're enjoying breathing that.

just bought a house and i been sneezing a lot So made me look inside the vents and they are fully loaded of dust - i cant believe it every single one- looks like the inside of a pillow just stuffed in the vents- i think I am going to call someone to do it. thanks for the video-

I like this guy. He broke it down and not talked down at his viewers like my dumb lazy landlord. As you can see it's early and this landlord I got seriously is a piece of work he should have came here. My air ducts are not only filthy but rusted past it's time. Smh

great idea, I will try it myself, my father was in the heating and air-conditioning business so I know a little more... thx, great video, chris

I like how your brain works ! Thanks so much excellent video no blah blah and just the details. BTW how much junk did you get out of the vents would of loved to see the contents of the vacuum cleaner

Costs have gone up significantly. I was just quoted $350 for an 1100 sqft house. I'd gladly fork over $80.

I would have loved to se the shop vac content after the project was finished to see how much had accumulated. That way I could judge if it was even worth my time and what difference it made. But nice video. It was helpful.

Ha! I thought I was the only one who uses a shop vac to clean my ducts! The only two things I do different is that I tape a dryer vent brush to the end of my shop vac hose and run it up and down the ducts be for using my little 6 gallon air compressor to blow the vents out. And I do use my air compressor, not a leaf blower. Seems to do as good a job as when I had a pro come in and clean them, as judged by how much I need to dust furniture.

I applaud you for this DIY work. But, that's a lot of work. Here in Los Angeles, CA it costs about $400 to get air ducts cleaned. I would gladly pay that, though, and go about my day!

I have one of those kits with a brush on a long metal handle that can be bent for my dryer vent. I think that might be useful to dislodge the dust along with a shop vac. I like the idea in the comments to exhaust the shop vac outdoors with a second hose, or an old pool hose. They don't cost much.

Thanks! I just got a quote for cleaning 17 vents and some fogging for $1500 what a steal....in Boston MA

Thank you for all the tips, i'm going to give this a try, i like to do the cleaning jobs myself , so i know its done right. I have a coal furnace , a pretty large house so i will let you know how it went, as soon as Spring rolls around maggy

Great video! I would've loved to see what you pulled out in your shop vac. Thanks for sharing!

Good job! I have not done this. Thinking of investing in cleaning kit to hook to my drill. Thanks!

I would say the brushes they use so a really good job but I am going to do it myself to save cash. I am going to use a plumbing snake with some sort of "loofah" type attachment. Like the lead blower idea but the one thing I did not agree with is using insulation to plug up the end to minimize the dust. The insulation is basically a big was of dust itself and so many people are allergic to it so you will be spreading out through your house. That's would prob give my son a trip to the ER but hey, You get an A for thinking outside the box

I had my house ducts cleans for $700 and it was amazing. They cleaned out 50 years worth of life, and 10 years of remolding. My needs were pretty extreme and the required a professional.

good diy, but be careful not to be blowing all that dust into the furnace components, and its a good idea to seal up all accessible areas such as that hole in the basement. Even just duct tape around there would be great for the system. also for others trying to do some diy cleaning, try a compressor.

I've just found this channel and I like its content. Congratulations on the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the presented ideas! :) Subscribed.

I would have liked to see inside the shop vac Before and After.

Brilliant plan I've been busting my head on diy plans on cleaning my HVAC. Never thought to use a leaf blower. Thanks ..... All though.... Next time you clean your vents, I wouldn't recommend using the insulation. Insulation is made tiny particles of glass. Getting insulation on your skin is bad enough. I'd think breathing little tiny particles of glass way worse than the dust you just cleaned.

It would be something to see what you actually got in the vacuum.

In the future, maybe use a high quality air filter for cleaning the air, not that bad basic one which is just to designed to protect the equipment. Those Arm and Hammer ones are great, as well as the 3M ones, or a electrostatic filter. It will certainly help keep dirt, and mold out of the vents

First off I like the idea and see that your trying to save money. I work for a duct cleaning company and the machine we use down stairs is 10 times stronger. And we use and air compressor with rods that go through the lines to blow everything down to our main machine. Yes what we do is not cheap but you get what you pay for, and get everything thing cleaned 100%

I done the same with a shop vac and long hose. Shoved my cammera down them and they look clean. Cant stress enought now important the return air vents are to clean as that your air intake. I could here the vac suck god knows what from return vents up to about 8 feet in. Also change your filter and clean interior of furnace. I also ran a 1 micron shop filter in all the rooms with vents for 24/7 for one day while running the "cleaned" vents. 1 microns not hepa but it gets close to it.

you are fantastic!I respect someone who will take on a challange!

This is a good enough way to do it yourself if you’re in a pinch and your vents are seriously clogged. But hiring an actual professional will clean it really thoroughly. Meaning they won’t just bang on the walls of those vents to loosen the dirt, they’ll actually go in there with a tool that scrapes and brushes the insides of the walls. For longer lasting results.

I had an estimate done from an advertisement for $49.95 but the final estimate was $2,200. I declined. I used leaf blower to get rid of basic dust and discovered lots of dumped grout and tile bits down one of the ducts. No wonder my house was so dusty.

What were the contents of the shop vac like? Or did you check the vent before putting the plate back on? I love the creativity in your approach, but without ways to quantify how effective your cleaning was this is not as helpful

That dust is stuck to the sides thats not getting the most of it. That's why you see them with a circular brush and it goes around like a brush on a vaccum to loosen everything up.

Registers are one of the many overlooked DIY projects that can completely transform the look of your home. There are so many decorative and affordable vents to choose from! :)

We don't use warm air much over in England but, my dads old house that will still have does indeed have this system in but even though there is not much insulation around the ducting there does seem to be more than in your home. Cover the ducting where you can it will save you money.

I cleaned out my heat vents. I called someone to that and it was a joke. Spent $100.00 and it was worthless. So I got up there, and used a special vacuum, with attachments to slightly wet the inside vents and I wiped that stuff up myself. Boy they were clean!

Great job. I know what I'm doing this next weekend.

This is a great idea, I wonder renting a powerful shopvac and blower is a better idea, it won't cost more than 40$ for the day.

Nice video, thanks. Would have liked to see how much dust your shop vac collected though.

I’m having the same problem whenever I turn on my heat or Air. I’m wondering if it helped. I called hvac and they told me $400 for a 3 bedroom apartment. $80 sounds more affordable

Just seeing the basement i could tell you were in michigan. Man i hate our basements

Thanks Dave... I'm in Florida, the scam capitol of the world, so I aim to try to do this job myself...

For anyone who lives in Florida from Central to South Florida it is not necessary to have a company do your ducts. We hardly even use heat some years only days some a week or two. Since mainly A/C goes thru our vents the dust build isn't much and at the vent and all the air makes it hard for mold to grow. If you have moldy bathroom caulk then you might ask a professional but turning the fan on when showering should cure that problem. The most I ever had to do is remove the vent and use something with a long handle and cloth or a swifter since the dust build up happens there. I do have a fireplace blower and that looked like the one he showed us full of dust and dirt so check that before use every year.

Great Idea, I would have love to see the inside of shop vac to how much dust you accumulated.

as a guy that did this for 3 years. what he is doing is ok if you system is already fairly clean. we were not at the 80 dollar mark at all. A normal size house 20 vents was $200 and took about 2 hours including set up and tear down. we sprayed disinfectant in the duct work washed all the vent covers and cleaned all the lines including the big runs in the basement. the stuff I have found in the the vents would surprise you. everything from construction material to money and jewelry. yes the money and jewelry were returned. I have found stuff that was worth money that was there from previous owners. hell I even found stuff people where hiding . guns drugs even porn. all stuff your leaf blower will not move. I would never throw around the word hepa. I for one never tried to up sell anything to anyone.I have been in a house for as little as 2 hours and as long as 12 hours. so you can imagine how long that would take with a shop vac and leaf blower. no to mention we always showered before and after to the customer. so let me tell you I was one to think it was a rip off before I started cleaning them. after not so much had many customers call my office to thank me.

Looks like I have a new job detail to complete. Thank you for your insight.

Wow people are being super nice in the comments. What he's doing is a waste of time. Period.

If it requires 15x the suction or blowing power of the furnace itself to remove some stubborn buildup maybe it should be left alone as its not going anywhere just running the furnace. House painters usually knock off the loose paint, sand and paint over the original paint. Its the loose dust that may come out your vents into your lungs

Best video I've seen so far. Thank you.

I've been an hvac mechanic my entire life...I've built, installed, repaired and cleaned HVAC SYSTEMS my entire life...not bad...could be better....

I would have been interested in seeing what your shop vac content looked like after everything.

that shot vac has about 120 CFM maybe, the leaf blower has how many PSI? I have a business that does duct cleaning and I use a vacuum with 5000 CFM of suction and 170 PSI of compressed air. It was funny watching this guys video, he got alot of views. Truth is there are alot of scammers out there, but not every guy is, and not me. Im a ticketed journeyman in refrigeration and gas fitting from Canada. No BS

this is the type of cleaning your mom has you do before guests come over

To clear up any confusion, the scam is advertising only $80, then telling them the real price once inside the house. Here's Chris Hansen to explain: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gebcbG5P-0Y.html Also, I will admit that using fiberglass insulation probably wasn't a good choice. I was looking for some type of pillowy material that could fit through the small opening, then fill the large vent. If i ever do it again i would try using tape and a garbage bag to make an air tight seal. But the concept itself is sound. Other than using the air hoses that snake down the ducts, the process is the same as the professionals.